Our holdings include hundreds of glass and film negatives/transparencies that we've scanned ourselves; in addition, many other photos on this site were extracted from reference images (high-resolution tiffs) in the Library of Congress research archive. (To query the database click here.) They are adjusted, restored and reworked by your webmaster in accordance with his aesthetic sensibilities before being downsized and turned into the jpegs you see here. All of these images (including "derivative works") are protected by copyright laws of the United States and other jurisdictions and may not be sold, reproduced or otherwise used for commercial purposes without permission.

They mashed the potatoes on purpose. The style was to be flat as a board. There was even a brand of foundation garments called "Boyishform." Small-breasted (relative) waifs come into fashion cyclically.

I find it interesting that the chorine in front left has the horse Spark Plug, which was, of course, Barney Google's horse -- Barney Google, with those Goo-Goo-Googly eyes. He was actually the star of the comic strip by that name, but later took a back seat as an occasional visitor, to Snuffy Smif.

This photo helps explain all the fuss about Broadway showgirls in the 1920s. Not even the old hairstyles or fashions get in the way in this image. The Greenwich Follies of 1924 opened on September 16 in the Shubert Theater and ran for 127 performances. Cole Porter wrote all the music for the two-act revue, including a number titled "Toy of Destiny," which might explain the idea behind this publicity shot. The dance numbers starred the Dolly Sisters, Jennie and Rosie, and this contemporary photo of them suggests that they were never upstaged by all these vivacious chorines.

Shorpy.com | History in HD is a vintage photo archive featuring thousands of high-definition images from the 1850s to 1960s. (Available as fine-art prints from the Shorpy Archive.) The site is named after Shorpy Higginbotham, a teenage coal miner who lived 100 years ago.